An enterprise may have a legal or other obligation and/or an internal policy that requires selected content to be retained in a particular manner and/or for a prescribed period. In some cases, it may be necessary to be able to provide proof that content data, such as files, email messages, or other content, is being and/or has been retained as required. Often an enterprise will have a policy that at least certain data not be retained beyond an associated and/or prescribed retention period, to avoid the cost of storing and managing the data and the potential cost of locating and producing the data in the context of litigation, for example.
In some managed content systems, certain items of content, such as certain files, mail messages, or other content, may be represented as a complex object having two or more associated components, such as a virtual document that includes the content of two or more files or other objects, or an email message to which a word processing document or other file has been attached as an attachment. In such cases, there is a need for a way to ensure that components of a complex stored object are retained in parallel, such that no component is deleted or otherwise disposed of until the retention period applicable to the complex stored object has expired and no component continues to be stored once the retention period has expired and the other components have been deleted.